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BOSTON—For legions of Blue Jays fans, it was the most highly anticipated of roster moves.

Fan favourite Travis Snider, mired in the minors since last August, returned to the Jays lineup Friday night following a 10-player deal with Houston which, along with Jose Bautista’s recent injury, created an opening in the outfield.

“One thing I do want to say is thank you to every fan out there that has supported me through this process and this journey,” Snider said before the game in the visitors dugout at Fenway Park. “I think that you can’t be thankful enough for those people that are pulling for you.”

The Jays thumped the Red Sox 6-1 in Snider’s return, tagging Boston’s Josh Beckett for four runs in the first two innings, while Jays lefty Aaron Laffey blanked the Red Sox through seven.

Laffey, who started the year in Triple A and joined the Jays rotation last month, extended his Fenway scoreless streak to 13 innings, scattering eight hits and walking no one in a remarkably efficient outing. Laffey threw six scoreless innings of three-hit ball when the Jays last visited Boston, and is just the second pitcher since 1980 to shut out the Red Sox in multiple outings of at least six innings.

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Laffey didn’t throw a single breaking ball and only used a few changeups, staying almost exclusively with a fastball mix of cutter, sinker and four-seamer.

“If you have good fastball command, you just keep rolling with it,” he said, adding that he only added the cutter into his repertoire this season. “I’ve always been aggressive with fastballs and sinkers, but having that cutter now I can split the plate and it makes it a lot tougher for the guys to square up a ball.”

Five of the Jays’ nine hits went for extra bases, including Colby Rasmus’s team-leading fourth triple in the first inning. Rasmus promptly scored on an Edwin Encarnacion ground ball to third, beating Will Middlebrooks’ throw to Red Sox catcher Kelly Shoppach with a sneaky swipe of home plate. Rasmus also hit a two-run double in the second.

All in all, the Jays looked like a different team than the one that was so handily swept by the Yankees earlier in the week.

Snider doubled off the Green Monster in the ninth, coming around to score the Jays’ sixth run.

For a player with a career batting average below .250 and a strikeout rate greater than 25 per cent, Snider has developed a remarkable following of supporters in Toronto. He was the No. 2 trending topic on Twitter in Canada Thursday night, as speculation of his big-league return swirled.

The former first-round pick, still just 24 years old, has had a tumultuous up-and-down career. He made his big-league debut in 2008, but has never played more than 82 games in a single season. His supporters have long argued that the constant yo-yo’ing between the minors and majors wrecked the young player’s confidence and thwarted his development.

“It takes a toll on anybody whether you’re 21, 22, 23 or you’re 28, 29, 30 years old,” he admitted. Although he lost the starting left field job to Eric Thames out of spring training, Snider said he was strengthened by an offseason in which he refocused mentally and took more of a Zen approach to the game.

“Even though this isn’t how I would have drawn it up ... that’s life. I have a lot more time on this earth and I don’t want to walk around being angry at the world. I’ve done that in my life and that’s something I’ve had to work hard on to overcome and really just put myself in a position to wake up each and every day to be thankful for what I have.”

Given all he’s been through, Snider says he feels much older than his 24 years. But he said he has better learned how to ride the major leagues’ roller coaster of emotions and keep his career in perspective.

“What I’ve gone through in life, not only outside of baseball, but in baseball, prepares me for these tests that life is going to bring, whether it’s baseball or injuries or family situation or whatever.”

Snider’s mother and two of his grandparents died when he was still a teenager. He also lost a close friend and a coach around the same time. Anger management and therapy followed.

“It’s understanding what I can control, that’s my mindset. Inner peace and happiness is not something that’s going to be affected by things that go on outside.”

Once a highly touted prospect, Snider watched this year as other, younger players were promoted ahead of him, most recently Anthony Gose. It started to look as if he may no longer be part of the organization’s long-term plans.

“It’s a tough pill to swallow when opportunities aren’t handed to you like they were in the past,” he said. “I know I’m not the Golden Boy — I’m not the 20-, 21-year-old kid again — but it’s a good learning process for me, a chance to grow up, a chance to mature.”

Aside for a brief stint in Dunedin to rehab a wrist injury, Snider has spent all of this season in Triple-A Las Vegas, where he hit .335 with 13 home runs while posting a 1.021 OPS in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League.

Snider will get most of the starts in left field for the time being, manager John Farrell said, with Rajai Davis the odd man out. But since Snider, Rasmus and Gose all hit left-handed, “Rajai will get his at-bats,” Farrell said.

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